Limiting Opportunity: Student Race and Curricular Differences in Secondary Vocational Education

Revisionist educational historians have suggested that vocational education in secondary schools has been used primarily to segregate poor and minority students into occupational training programs to preserve the academic curriculum for white middle- and upper-class students. Using data collected about 25 secondary schools in the Study of Schooling sample, this study investigated whether a relationship existed between student race and ethnicity and differences in the scope and substance of vocational courses taken. Data analyzed included instructional resources devoted to vocational programs, number and types of courses offered, the content and format of courses, and the distribution of students from various racial and ethnic groups into vocational classes. Results indicate that, while there was no greater instructional emphasis on vocational education in all-nonwhite or mixed schools than in all-white schools, substantive differences both between and within schools' vocational programs resulted in marked differences in the vocational experiences of white and nonwhite secondary students. These results point to the need for policymakers and educators to reconsider seriously the appropriateness of specific occupational training in secondary schools.